Hull briefs Wooster Rotary on gains made in downtown living spaces

WOOSTER -- "A 21st-century living space in a 19th-century building is attractive to many people," Sandra Hull told a Rotary crowd Monday.

Hull, in her capacity of executive director of Main Street Wooster, was speaking about loft living in downtown.

She, along with Justin Starlin, community services and development administrator at City Hall, spent time discussing the public-private partnership that has helped revitalize downtown.

"Historically, when shop owners locked up they would walk upstairs and be home," Hull explained.

Overall, she said there are five segments that help to create a strong foundation for any downtown -- retail businesses, services, professional offices, entertainment and housing.

It was the idea of reintroducing residential units back into downtown that has helped the entire district gain momentum.

Developer Mike Rose was the first to introduce loft apartments roughly a decade ago with Liberty Street Commons, Hull said. After that, Mike Mariola renovated space above South Market Bistro, Bill Erdos renovated Germania Hall and others and Erdos and Rose teamed up to renovate other spaces along Liberty Street.

In most cases, Hull noted, lofts were leased before they were completed.

When Hull started with Main Street in the late 1980s, occupancy rates on the second and third floors of buildings were in the neighborhood of 65 percent. Today, they hover around 98 percent, Hull noted. She estimated there are more than 50 lofts in downtown with 12 condos on the horizon with the completion of Merchants Block.

"Mike Mariola said the longest he has ever waited to fill an apartment of his was two months," Hull said.

Starlin explained the ways the city has helped downtown's rebirth.

The first thing he mentioned was taking a "proactive" approach to the building code. In this regard, Starlin said Tim Monea, chief building official for the city, has worked with developers to make projects work.

In many cases, Starlin said "developers found the Ohio Building Code made projects economically unfeasible."

"Our idea from day one has been to take a pro-business approach to ensure buildings are safe and adhere to the code, but are feasible," he said.

Another tool was the Community Reinvestment Area zone to allow for tax abatements for downtown revitalization.

At times, Starlin said the program has been a sensitive issue as it requires the Wooster City Schools board to defer tax receipts.

"But our argument is you can't lose what you never had to begin with, or would have at all," he said.

Wooster had Wayne County's first CRA zone, he noted.

The other tool was the creation of the D5-L revitalization district in order to secure additional liquor licenses for businesses wishing to serve alcohol.

"If Cleveland or Columbus wanted additional licenses they could create an entertainment district ... if you were Wooster, good luck," Starlin said was the case before the city petitioned the state for the new classification. Since its inception, he said, the state has seen 10 other communities adopt the program.

Starlin ended by mentioning the four-year process of transforming the former Freedlander's department store into the Merchants Block building, set to open in October. He said there is a long list of entities that came together over the years to ensure the space was filled.

Hull said the House of Hunan and Lemon Berry, both with locations in Medina, have announced intentions to move into the commercial space once the project is complete, adding to downtown's "critical mass" of businesses.

In all, Hull said the Main Street process "is an incremental process that is priority-driven and focuses on the preservation of a traditional center" of a community.

"The people who rent these units ... love the convenience of being able to walk somewhere to eat or to a farmer's market," Hull said.

Reporter Steve Huszai can be reached at 330-287-1645 or shuszai@the-daily-record.com. He is @GeneralSmithie on Twitter.